Filmmaker Hali Lee grew up in suburban Kansas City, where
she remembers her own high school prom as a drag. In later
years, however, she became obsessed with trying to understand
the appeal of this quintessentially American tradition—was
it the pageantry, the poignant pretensions of teenagers
dressing up as ‘adults,' the myth of prom as a pagan
coming-of-age ritual, or the ersatz memories? To discover
the answers, she returns to her hometown to follow diverse
teenagers from four different Kansas City communities as they
prepare for their proms and the "Night of their Lives"—Smurf,
the inner-city track star, wants to be Prom King; Nick,
Beth and Mary, all devout Christians, must dress modestly
for their proms, where they are not allowed to dance; Gayla,
an out lesbian, wears a tuxedo to hers, accompanied by her
girlfriend; and Oliver, the skeptical, anti-prom slacker,
decides to videotape his. In the end, the filmmaker learns
that prom night offers the chance to create stories about
ourselves, stories that say something about who we are.

“Highly Recommended—Filmmakers Hali Lee and Peter Von Ziegesar’s Prom Night In Kansas City looks at class, education, money, race, and sexual-preference biases in America through the prism of a semi-antiquated institution: the high school prom. Filmed literally in middle America—Kansas City—over a period of several years, the documentary explores how different schools, families, and students celebrate prom nights.” —Video Librarian